Drake Explains Blackface Photo

Hip-hop fans were shocked Tuesday (May 29) when — as a consequence of the rappers' feud — Pusha T uploaded a photo to Twitter that featured a decade-old portrait of Drake in blackface. But late Wednesday night (May 30), Drake moved to explain the image, and said its context is completely missing.

As part of the release of Drake-diss-track "The Story of Adidon," Pusha T posted the image below with the caption "Please stop referring to this picture as 'artwork'...I’m not an internet baby, I don’t edit images...this is a REAL picture...these are his truths, see for yourself."

Naturally, fans were shocked. But Drake tried to explain in an Instagram story caught by @WordOnRd that the picture was for a specific project that was meant to underscore the plight of black entertainers in an industry that still marginalizes them.

“This was not from a clothing brand shoot or my music career,” he wrote. “This picture is from 2007, a time in my life where I was an actor and I was working on a project that was about young black actors struggling to get roles, being stereotyped and type cast. The photos represented how African Americans were once wrongfully portrayed in entertainment. This was to highlight and raise our frustrations with not always getting a fair chance in the industry and to make a point that the struggle for black actors had not changed much."